Which to use
“Personal” is a noun and “personell” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,462
- “Personal” frequency rank
- #27,445
- “personell” frequency rank
- 29907
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Personal | personell |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Belegschaft eines Geschäftes, Unternehmens oder einer Firma | das Personal betreffend, auf es bezogen, zu ihm gehörig |
Where the eye mixes Personal and personell
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Personal with personell
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Personal is [pɛʁzoˈnaːl] while personell is [pɛʁzoˈnɛl]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29907, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Personal is recorded at frequency rank #2,462, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɛʁzoˈnaːl]. personell is at rank #27,445, tagged as anadj, pronounced [pɛʁzoˈnɛl].
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 29907, this pair ranks #1,757,997 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Personal vs personell
Shared letters: elnoprs. Private to "Personal": a. Private to "personell": -.
"Personal" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "personell" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Personal" for "personell" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Personal" or "personell"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Personal" and "personell" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Personal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "personell" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,757,997 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Personal" and "personell" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "personell vs personellen". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #1,757,997 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.